Chapter 11
"Saammmm," Jack quietly whined from his perch on their bed. "Can't that wait until tomorrow?"
With an exasperated sigh Samantha turned from the make shift desk in their bedroom to look at Jack. She was about to tell him off but then seeing him laying on their bed she couldn't quite resist the urge to crawl in next to him. "I was almost done, but I suppose the battery was going to die soon anyway." She snapped the lap top shut and made her way over to Jack's waiting arms. He quickly enveloped her in a hug as they lay down together. They both lay in comfortable silence, staring up at the ceiling lost in their own thoughts before either spoke. Sam was still thinking about the simulations she had been running on the laptop which they had found in yet another of the ships compartments. It had come in quite handy, it had allowed her to leave the ship to sometimes work from their new home. It had been a month since they had decided they were going to try and fix the timeline. In that time, Samantha had reviewed her alternate's recordings to learn everything she possibly could about the ships technology as well as the amazing power source they had dubbed a ZPM. It was amazing that this ZPM had been running for over thousands of years to keep the cloak intact and the power supply was barely depleted, it was the find of the century. She also used it to power up the different tools she had found in the ship including the video camera and laptop. She also enjoyed watching the tapes because it gave her an inside view to their alternates lives. She couldn't help but chuckle at the other Jack's antics. They seemed so at ease with each other. She supposed that came of working so closely together for what? The other Sam had said 8 years. She was somewhat jealous of the other two's rapport but was not jealous of the fact that they weren't able to "be" together during all that time. Something to do with military regulations. She wistfully thought about how they had at least that small amount of time together here on this island. She looked toward her Jack lovingly, and reached a hand out to stroke his chest. At least she had him now.
While Sam had been working on the ship repairs, Jack had set about making their living situation comfortable. He did an initial cleanup of their new home, including throwing out all the musty, threadbare, sheets, and clothing, salvaging what he could and replacing it with the perfectly preserved ones he had found in the ship. He made repairs to the roof and cleaned out any debris left from previous storms. Then his days mainly consisted of exploring the island, catching their dinner, making any other improvements he could as well as helping Sam with anything she needed. He loved watching her work with such passion however she almost seemed obsessed with their new mission. It led him to wonder what their other selves were like, and how could they be any better then what 'they' were, he loved his Sam and wouldn't want her any other way. His eyes wandered to the picture that Samantha had placed on their night table of the originals team, SG-1 they were called.
Samantha having broken out of her musings of the past month turned her head once again to stare up at Jack to notice he was staring with a pensive look on his face towards the picture she had found in the alternates dresser. She rolled onto her stomach and placed her head down on her arm that was still on his chest, so she could get a better look at the picture too. The dog tags around her neck clinking together as she moved snapped Jack out of his reverie. He turned to stare at the chain around her neck and followed it down until it disappeared under the material of her t-shirt. She had worn them since the day he had found them at the gravesite. He knew it was another reminder for her obsession to fix the timeline.
"A penny for them?" she asked, as he reached over to pull the tags from inside her shirt and absently began to finger them.
"I was just thinking about them," nodding his head towards the picture. "What they are like, how are they different and the same. You know"
"Yeah I often think the same, and about what Daniel and Teal'c must be like, from their descriptions on the tape they were really good friends of ours, more then that I think they were our family, now they just look like strangers."
"I'm also concerned about you." He said as he reached up and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear before caressing her cheek. He noticed how her eyes clouded over with a troubled look.
"What do you mean? I'm fine"
"I know but you seem so crazily devoted to this and I wonder if you've ever stopped to think about whether or not this is right? How do we know their timeline is any more right than ours? It seems like you think she is better and the correct version of yourself and I want you to know that's not true. I love you the way you are."
"Jack," she smiled warmly, "I love you too." I'm always going to be me, or you'll always know this version of me, at least I hope, we will always stay together. I've looked at this from a bigger perspective, it isn't about us. This timeline we are in now, from what I know, we haven't found a Stargate. It sounds like that was crucial in this battle with the Go'aulds or whatever they were called. So we are sitting ducks. We need to change the timeline back so that 'we' can save Earth."
Jack chuckled and said, "I like the way you think, when you put it that way it makes more sense. Speaking of always being together," Jack paused, as his fingers began to run over the gold ring attached to the chain. "I was wondering if, well, once we got to Egypt, we could find that man, that you know…"
Sam smirked and leaned in closer to Jacks face, "What are you trying to say Jack?"
She could tell by the way his hand was fidgeting with the dog tags he was nervous and she thought it was adorable, she had a pretty good idea what was coming. "Oh heck! I'm wondering if you will marry me! When we get to Egypt I want us to be married like the alternates were" He stared at her questioningly his heart beating heavily in his chest. "Of course Jack! Of course I will marry you." She placed a kiss to his lips, before laying back down with her head on his chest. She recalled the description on the tape that the other Sam had told of their marriage in Egypt. It had sounded absolutely beautiful. After a few moments of dreamily picturing married life with Jack, Samantha remembered that she was going to give Jack her latest update on the ship.
"So I'm pretty sure I can have it flying and time travel ready in a week's time."
"Hmmm" Jack mumbled as he slowly ran his hand up and down under her shirt, over the smooth skin of her back. "What?"
"The ship Jack! I can have it ready in a week."
"Oh right, the ship." He said, clearly distracted.
"So do you think we need to come up with any other preparations? A plan maybe"
"I'm not really sure what's beyond going back in time to ancient Egypt. I'm hoping this Daniel will still be there and we will be able to help him out."
"Well that's not much of a plan."
"I know and I don't like it any more then you do, but we don't have much to go with here, we have no weapons or intel other then this ship. If you are having second thoughts we can rethink this."
"No, no, I still want to do this it just seems so much more real now that it's so close."
"I know what you mean, I'm pretty sure we are just going to have to go back and tell them that a Stargate was never found in Giza and hopefully this Daniel will know what that means."
"Are you going to miss this place?"
Jack stopped the movements of his hand and brought both up to Sam's face, "Are you kidding me, this has been the best time of my life, yeah I'm going to miss it."
"Do you think we could come back then?" Sam said in a small voice, hoping he would say yes since she too had been the happiest she'd ever been.
"Yeah sure you betcha! I don't see why we couldn't after we fix things, besides this seems like a good hiding spot for this ZPM thing a ma gig." With that Jack rolled on top of Samantha and began kissing her passionately and no more words were spoken again that night.
~*~
The week had flown quickly past and now both Samantha and Jack sat in the cockpit of the 'puddle jumper' ready for takeoff.
"Now remember, think 5000 years ago." Sam said closing her eyes tightly together in mock imitation. She then glanced over at Jack after she had finished a preliminary check of the ship systems. She noticed that he merely nodded with a grimace.
"Hey," she said, placing her hand over his on the console. "What is it?"
"Sorry, completely the wrong time but I was just thinking about what we talked about the other night, about coming back here. You know I'd love to have kids someday, I can't believe I'm thinking this before even knowing if you want any, but if we come back here what sort of life will they have?"
"Uhhh…" Sam stammered, "Wow, not what I was expecting."
"Just forget I said anything."
"No, no, Jack, honestly I hadn't thought about it before, I didn't think I'd make a great parent, but after knowing you I definitely want children with you. How about we get this mission finished first and we'll work out the rest later."
She gave him a quick peck on the lips and he smiled, "Yes Maham," giving a fake salute, "thank you though, I feel better now."
He waved his hand over the console, and she watched in awe tinged with a bit of envy as multiple lights began blinking.
"Alright now remember, 5000 years ago"
"Gotcha" and with that Jack placed his hands down on the main control and they felt a slight shift that made Sam's stomach do flip flops. They both looked out the window, curious to see if anything looked different. At first glance everything seemed the same; the window portrayed the same lush foliage of their current island home.
"It looks the same" Jack stated the obvious.
"I guess that is to be expected, this island has probably always been uninhabited, our alternates said they found no one when they arrived here. I guess we won't know if we are in the past until we fly out to Egypt."
"Maybe we should take a look around here first."
Something in their view had caught Samantha's attention and she said, "I think that would be a very good idea."
Having followed Sam's line of site, Jack also noticed the orangey tinge to the sky and asked, "What is it?"
"I don't know." She replied with some trepidation in her voice
Jack stood and grabbed their only weapons, the knife and hand gun they had found amongst the alternates things. He handed the gun to Sam.
"Whoa, I've never used one of these before. I prefer the use of explosives on a much larger scale."
Exasperated, Jack said, "Humor me will ya, it will probably be easier for you to use then a knife, am I right?
"Yeah you are right, come on lets go."
As they stepped outside, the off coloring of the sky became more apparent. The sky was completely overcast and was glowing with several different hues of oranges and reds as if something was burning.
"I wonder if this island is showing signs of volcanic activity or maybe there is an island nearby that is." Sam analyzed out loud.
"Something is definitely different. Look at the trees."
As Sam looked around she noticed that the plant growth was a lot less dense then from where they left.
"Maybe it took those thousands of years for everything to grow in."
Jack bent down closer to some tree stumps on the ground, "it hasn't yet to grow, it already has and has been cut down."
As Sam looked around she noted that Jack was indeed correct. The ground also showed signs of having been travelled regularly.
"Jack I don't think we are alone any longer."
"Neither do I." He replied and he pointed to a thin line of smoke rising out of the trees a few kilometers away, where he knew several caves were located.
"Alright, follow my lead, try and be as quiet as possible, I'd rather check out the locals first before they know about us."
Sam nodded her understanding and made to follow him into the trees.
They walked for about half an hour before Jack made Samantha duck behind some bushes just outside the clearing where the fire was. What they saw shocked both of them. From what they could see there were around 30 people huddled around campfires, preparing what must be dinner, some coming and going from the caves. But what surprised them was that they were speaking English. They waited until a young woman, probably in her early twenties came down to the stream that ran by their hiding place to fetch some water. Jack thought this would be a perfect opportunity to ask some questions. As the woman bent down to fill her pail with water, Jack stepped up behind her and said, "Hello there, what you doing?"
The woman, startled, quickly stood and turned. "Geez, so not funny, don't scare me like that."
Not exactly the reaction Jack was expecting, he was expecting her to still be nervous after her initial shock but now she seemed perfectly at ease. He took a moment to study her more closely; she had long, dirty blond hair that looked like it hadn't seen a brush in days. Her clothes were nothing more than rags. This however did nothing to diminish her very striking features.
The woman smiled, "What? What are you looking at?" Her demeanor quickly changed to shock, the bucket fell from her hands as her mouth fell open and her sparkling blue eyes opened wide. Jack had felt Sam come up behind him and assumed this had caused her reaction.
"I knew you would come, many didn't believe it, but I knew." Her voice fell off into a whisper.
Both dumbstruck, having no idea what that could mean, Jack and Sam just turned to stare at each other before questioningly turning their eyes back to the woman.
I don't own anything... thanks for reading!